Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1887-03-30
OLD MEXICAN MINES.
An Experienced Prospector Thinks They
Are Not Rich as Reported.

An experienced RrOSpeCCOr THINKS TheY
Are Not Rich Reported.
Many mining papers are quoting
remark attributed to Sir Charles Lyell,
the eminent geologist, which is that
''the interior of Mexico is the richest
known argentiferous section of the
whole world" Something very SINH
lar to this is also said to have been
stated by Humboldt Romancers of
high and low degree have played upon
the same string, until the whole world
has come to believe that Sir Charles
Lyelrs remark is true Even among
financiers the possible wealth of Mexico
in silver is said to be feared as thing
which may demoralize all calculations
regarding silver supplies and silver
coinage. The very truthful statement
is made that Spaniards worked out
only the surface of the veins, ceasing OPP
erations when the water was reached;
that with crude methods of mining and
smelling they produced two or three
billion ounces of silver in two hundred
years, and from these facts they argue
that with modern methods and modern
machinery the same veins at greater
depth can be made to yield more
abundantly than ever and to flood the
world with the white metal
The argument looks plausible, but it
is based upon false premises. Not I'M
frequently one finds the old gray
headed and erroneous statement that
oh,
depth, the abandoned Mexican mines
will yield more largely below the water
level than they yielded above. The
fact is, the Spanish adventures who
visited Mexico got the cream,
as those who get the ore
near the surface generally do.
Their crude methods of mining and ore
treatment were the best possible under
the circumstances. They mined ex-
clusively with slave labor, the slaves
raising the corn and vegetables upon
which they subsisted. AS the con-
quered natives furnished the slaves, the
cost of mining was merely nominal
and whatever was produced was nearly
all profit. 1t is quite apparent that
these are advantages which enabled
them to work remarkably low-grade
ore, advantages that can not be OBJ
tanned at this day AS for the smelling
processes, an examination of their
slags showed that they understood
their business and did work of which a
modern metallurgist would not be
ashamed.
Years ago the writer read those
stories which fire the Imagination, anc,
as result sought for the wondrous
wealth along the Cordillera of Anahauc
through the interior of Mexico, as well
as where the golden-roofed palm looks
out on the blue waters of the Caribbean
sea, and the rustling cocoanuts grow
on the shores of the Pacific, and he
found no evidence of wondrous silver
wealth. Many and many an old
abandoned Spanish mine was explored
as far as practicable, and no rich ore
was found. Many dump pile was
carefully searched for grain, a trace
of rich ore, and scarcely any was found
which would be called pay ore in Colo
RADIO. The conclusion was inevitable
that the general run of the ore worked
had been low grade.
To-day nearly all the mines worked
in Mexico are lodes which were never
touched by the Spaniards. The old
mines were worked for from 500 to 800
feet in depth. and there are few of
them which give any promise of pay
ing well enough to warrant the cree
ton of machinery. To-day Mexican
can build an adobe furnace and smelt
ore at from $5. SO to Sc. so per ton, and
they do good work. By the patois pro-
cess he can and does work ore at from
1915 to 81 per ton, saving 90 per cent.
of its value. The old mines, whose
standing ores can be mined cheaply,
cannot furnish ores which will pay even
these prices for working.
There are rich mines in Mexico, no
doubt, some of which are undiscov-
cred, but that it is ''the richest known ar
gentiferous section of the whole world
is a statement not substantiated by
well-known facts. No man must sup
pose that the Mexicans are race of
people who would allow such riches to
lie idle and undeveloped. American
miners could learn something from
them, and the lessons would often be
worth a good deal of money. They
could especially learn something about
mining laws. There are never any
vexatious and costly suits there about
apex and side lines, and the great ma
jority of failures are made by those
who undertake to use the modern ma
chinery and modem methods of mining
and milling. -De1aver Tribune.